Tuesday, October 04, 2011
A Few Simple Truths
The Way Things Are!
Corporate jets are efficient transportation and time savers for movers and shakers.
There is nothing wrong with making a lot of money, and keeping it– minus taxes, of course.
Contributors to our society reap rewards commenserate with their value in the marketplace.
Deficit spending has a hard limit; it will have to stop when you cannot pay back in full. (We are too near that now for comfort.)
There is no such thing as a free lunch.
It isn’t a secret that corporate taxes are factored into the price to the customer, and the higher these taxes, the higher the price charged, and the less competitive the product is in the world market. So now we have an ever decreasing manufacturing sector and number of jobs, because to remain competitive we have shipped the manufacturing jobs overseas, mainly to China. They will not return.
The top 10% of tax payers today pay over 70% of the taxes: The bottom 40-50% pay nothing, so in a real sense the bottom half are not stakeholders but simply takers.
The free market is the most efficient way to control an economy, but it needs the right amount of regulation to ensure a level playing field and control of fraud and abuse, and this needs constant work to keep up.
This free market approach has been the best for our economy, including health care.
Environmental stewardship is an important objective for society, but we cannot wreck the economy to achieve unrealistic environmental goals, or we will only achieve a beautiful, clean, yet dirt poor, vulnerable and starving nation. Further, the world measures of clean air and water will continue to be negative until China and India, for two, make enormous strides in their lands.
The jobless rate is far closer to 16% to 18% than the carefully calculated 9.1%, because the government doesn’t count those who have stopped seeking non-existent jobs, and shouting out the true number would be politically rather bad for Obama.
Judicious tax cuts stimulate the economy via increased consumer spending and demand, which in turn sparks hiring, production of more supplies and thus the flow of wages and profits, and lo and behold, greater tax revenue. The deficit is reduced by the disciplined spending of less than the revenue income.
The chief characteristics of illegal immigrants is that they are here illegally and they work well for less than citizens demand.
If we pursue our main natural energy resources to the fullest we can become energy independent inside of 10 to 15 years, and that means coal, oil, nuclear and natural gas. By playing with solar, wind, and wave sources, but not the main sources, we will still be heavily dependent on imported oil from the ME after that same 10 to 15 years. We need to get cracking and fracking right now!
Utopian or collective societies fail because they are diametrically opposed to human nature, and you can’t change or homogenize human nature by edicts or at the point of a gun. You can, however, create a huge mound of bodies of misfits and a bare subsistence level for the majority of sullen and resentful citizens who live on the promise of nirvana in another five years, and another five years, and…. No thank you!
The Way Things Are!
Corporate jets are efficient transportation and time savers for movers and shakers.
There is nothing wrong with making a lot of money, and keeping it– minus taxes, of course.
Contributors to our society reap rewards commenserate with their value in the marketplace.
Deficit spending has a hard limit; it will have to stop when you cannot pay back in full. (We are too near that now for comfort.)
There is no such thing as a free lunch.
It isn’t a secret that corporate taxes are factored into the price to the customer, and the higher these taxes, the higher the price charged, and the less competitive the product is in the world market. So now we have an ever decreasing manufacturing sector and number of jobs, because to remain competitive we have shipped the manufacturing jobs overseas, mainly to China. They will not return.
The top 10% of tax payers today pay over 70% of the taxes: The bottom 40-50% pay nothing, so in a real sense the bottom half are not stakeholders but simply takers.
The free market is the most efficient way to control an economy, but it needs the right amount of regulation to ensure a level playing field and control of fraud and abuse, and this needs constant work to keep up.
This free market approach has been the best for our economy, including health care.
Environmental stewardship is an important objective for society, but we cannot wreck the economy to achieve unrealistic environmental goals, or we will only achieve a beautiful, clean, yet dirt poor, vulnerable and starving nation. Further, the world measures of clean air and water will continue to be negative until China and India, for two, make enormous strides in their lands.
The jobless rate is far closer to 16% to 18% than the carefully calculated 9.1%, because the government doesn’t count those who have stopped seeking non-existent jobs, and shouting out the true number would be politically rather bad for Obama.
Judicious tax cuts stimulate the economy via increased consumer spending and demand, which in turn sparks hiring, production of more supplies and thus the flow of wages and profits, and lo and behold, greater tax revenue. The deficit is reduced by the disciplined spending of less than the revenue income.
The chief characteristics of illegal immigrants is that they are here illegally and they work well for less than citizens demand.
If we pursue our main natural energy resources to the fullest we can become energy independent inside of 10 to 15 years, and that means coal, oil, nuclear and natural gas. By playing with solar, wind, and wave sources, but not the main sources, we will still be heavily dependent on imported oil from the ME after that same 10 to 15 years. We need to get cracking and fracking right now!
Utopian or collective societies fail because they are diametrically opposed to human nature, and you can’t change or homogenize human nature by edicts or at the point of a gun. You can, however, create a huge mound of bodies of misfits and a bare subsistence level for the majority of sullen and resentful citizens who live on the promise of nirvana in another five years, and another five years, and…. No thank you!
Labels: Comments on the day, Conservatism, Economy, Government, Honesty, Illegals
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Obama's Sins Emerging Clearly
Obfuscation Tactics
Let me see, how many obfuscation tactics are available to deflect the import of documented sins if one is totally ruthless? Here is a short and incomplete list that can appear at any stage in any order! These tactics hold for office holders and for defenders of the faith! Some have already appeared!
1. Shoot the messenger! First thing they do; check!
2. Shoot the author! Second thing!; check!
3. Call the collected data a “hit piece” by biased people!; check!
4. Call the evidence to be somehow tainted!; TBD
5. Pick one accusation and find a supposed flaw, which is then used to try to discredit the entire set; TBD
6. Assure the silence of key potential witnesses; UNKN
7. Stonewall each accusation, and hide the data; UNKN
8. Blanket denials, lies and destroy the evidence (illegal in itself!); UNKN
9. Use executive privelege to deny access to data; check
10. Simply deny access and ignore court orders, etc; check
11. Bush did it; check
12. Bush did it too!; check
13. Other excuses; TBD
13. Clinton did it; check
14. X group or X individual did it, not me; check
15. Mount a counter argument that deflects the thrust; check
16. Assume the authority and challenge questioners; check
17. Publish counter reports from a biased perspective; check
18. Tie up the arguments in definitional problems and legal snares; check
19. Tie up the arguments in alternate interpretations of laws; check
Instances of most of these tactics are documented in Limbaugh’s book: “Crimes Against Liberty.”
Reply
Click to Edit
Let me see, how many obfuscation tactics are available to deflect the import of documented sins if one is totally ruthless? Here is a short and incomplete list that can appear at any stage in any order! These tactics hold for office holders and for defenders of the faith! Some have already appeared!
1. Shoot the messenger! First thing they do; check!
2. Shoot the author! Second thing!; check!
3. Call the collected data a “hit piece” by biased people!; check!
4. Call the evidence to be somehow tainted!; TBD
5. Pick one accusation and find a supposed flaw, which is then used to try to discredit the entire set; TBD
6. Assure the silence of key potential witnesses; UNKN
7. Stonewall each accusation, and hide the data; UNKN
8. Blanket denials, lies and destroy the evidence (illegal in itself!); UNKN
9. Use executive privelege to deny access to data; check
10. Simply deny access and ignore court orders, etc; check
11. Bush did it; check
12. Bush did it too!; check
13. Other excuses; TBD
13. Clinton did it; check
14. X group or X individual did it, not me; check
15. Mount a counter argument that deflects the thrust; check
16. Assume the authority and challenge questioners; check
17. Publish counter reports from a biased perspective; check
18. Tie up the arguments in definitional problems and legal snares; check
19. Tie up the arguments in alternate interpretations of laws; check
Instances of most of these tactics are documented in Limbaugh’s book: “Crimes Against Liberty.”
Reply
Click to Edit
Labels: Blockers, Corruption, Democrats, Fiscal Responsibility, Honesty, Integrity, Limbaugh, Obama, Politics and Iraq, Radicalism
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Hypocrisy Reigns
Verbal political battles are rife with hypocrisy.
The tactic of saddling a political party or an individual with historical misadventures is a well-developed art. It presumes that the misadventure of years ago in different circumstances and for rather uniquely different reasons is cause to believe that the same or very similar decision or policy would be promoted the next time the party or the individual is in a power position. So beat them over the head with it till they bleed!
Such a tactic wilfully ignores several points: 1) Parties and people do learn from their mistakes and will most likely take a far better position the next time out; 2) The accusers most often do not have all of the facts, and wilfully ignore what actually was the case for political reasons. Then too, hindsight is so much more accurate than foresight! The real factual basis quite often turns a trumped up losing proposition into a winner if you maintain your objectivity; 3) Quite a few of the accusers are simply twisting the facts around to create a (false) club with which to clobber the opposition and influence the average voter; 4) The emphasis should be on the NOW and not the past; and, just to be a tad facetious, 5) Political promises are not worth very much in the scheme of things to begin with. We have ample proof of that in the last two years from Obama, and from other Presidents as well, as we all know! Circumstances alter cases, as the saying goes, just to make things more difficult for you and me.
You know who your are and which tactics you use–honest or dishonest!
Labels: Honesty, hypocrisy, politics
Friday, September 04, 2009
Obama's First Months
It is a simple score:
Foreign Policy: F
Islam Policy: F
Health Policy: F
Stimulus: F
Budget: F-
WH Hires: F
Mug shots: F
GWOT: F-
Trust: F
Calming Fear: F
Clunkers: F
Cap&Trade: F-
Honesty: F
Friends: F-
Debt: F-
Most Other: F
So far, he is the worst President I have ever known; including LBJ, Clinton, and Carter, although they, too, rank way down.
Labels: GWOT, Honesty, hypocrisy, Integrity, Obama, Radicalism, Stimulus
Friday, July 03, 2009
Political Virtues
More like political vices today!
The vetting process is terribly faulty for our politicians at every level. If you can speak well, look pretty, dress well, and have money to burn, you are odds on to win something. If you have friends in high places, you can win big. If you have an issue or two that pleases the electorate, so much the better, particularly if they involve payouts to the public of some sort. Virtues? Well, these virtues seem to be all that are required.
If you tear the lid off of some of these practitioners of politics, the smell of rotting goop will overpower you. That is why they seek guides from the professional ranks of seers–to provide them with cover and polishing for their private and public sins, past and present.
We need more tearers-of-lids at an earlier point in the soddy careers of many politicians. Plus, we need a surer mechanism for shedding those who have outstayed their welcome or have committed egregious sins at citizen’s expense. Quite a few names come to mind, but I will refrain from calling them out here. Perhaps term limits will help.
Virtue is happiness! — Socrates
Labels: Government, Honesty, hypocrisy, Virtue
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Hiding the Booty! (I)
What do you do with millions in found money?
(First installment)
If there is a way for someone with a lot of cash to hide it, I am sure that public figures making millions a year will have found it and exploited it. They can afford to hire the very best financial gurus to help them stash away their money, and never mind how they got it in the first place.
The classic idea is to open a Swiss bank account and transfer all of the money into a numbered account. I understand that this is not quite the best way to go any more, since the Swiss have given in to the US on some types of accounts that are suspected of money laundering. By Swiss law, I must provide clear evidence of the economic origin of the money so that the bank can be protected from money laundering and other scams. Besides, a numbered account must maintain a balance of $250,000.
So what is the best way now to hide it if you suddenly come into millions? Not that it is very likely, but there are some individuals, such as Madoff and Sanford (the Texas one!), that have made billions and tried to hide lots of it. They appear to have failed miserably in the end! Madoff, for instance, is being forced to come up with 170 billion dollars to pay back his victims.
Here I am, dreaming of suddenly having a huge pile of thousand-dollar bills to handle somehow. Suppose that I found a big, hard-sided suitcase lying on the side of the road, unmarked, heavy, locked, and abandoned. I throw it in the trunk of my car, drive home, force the locks, and take out four boxes, a good bit longer than shoe boxes, open them, and realize that each box is chock full of thousand dollar bills. I begin to count it.
Over four million dollars I count! Then I go into the shock of suddenly having such a stash, and the parade of wants and desires I have had all my life come rushing in to be fulfilled: autos, planes, boats, a big house, wonderful clothes, travel, and vacations in exotic places…
The dreams are rudely interrupted by my recalling the law. Found money must be reported to the police and turned over to them for safekeeping. If no one has a verifiable claim for it after a month or more, you can have it all back. The money then is a matter of record, and the IRS would be around soon to grab their share, which could be as much as HALF!
Then, too, if the money is dirty or dope money, once my name is known by police records, reporters would latch onto the story of a guy walking into the station with four million dollars in found cash. It is virtually certain that some guys with huge muscles will call on me soon to produce the money immediately! I could be in a double bind! The IRS wants its share, and the gangsters will have taken it all. I would still owe the IRS a million or so dollars and they would not believe nor care about my protestations that it was stolen back.
This calls for thought! What are my options? I could take the suitcase full of money to the police, and risk the hoods and the IRS calling. I could take the whole thing back to where I found it, and let someone else struggle with it. I could burn it up; destroy it completely, and spread the ashes in the ocean. Or…I could hide it somewhere and use it slowly and carefully, lest someone report me to the IRS for living beyond my means. Somehow, I don’t think I could fly away with that suitcase of cash! It would very likely be opened at any border I crossed, just as those guys were caught with tons of bonds or something at the Swiss border. I am not a practiced liar or thief, so my very nervousness would tip the border agents off.
What if I simply went traveling around the US, staying here and there for a few days or weeks? Where would I keep the money, and how would I have access to it? Taking it all with me would be far too risky. Putting it into a bank lockbox is not really safe either: banks warn customers not to put cash into the boxes, and the police can get a warrant to open it if they suspect me. I could try to open substantial accounts in different banks, but that establishes a trail that can be followed. I could use different names, but then I would have to have proper identification for each name, which I really don’t have any idea how to obtain. Well, then I could feed my bank account little by little, and report it as something like gambling winnings, and pay the 30%. That falls down when the IRS audits me and finds out that I never gamble, have a relatively small salary, and cannot explain the extra cash I have fed into my account. Even if I did go gamble, they would check the payouts at the places I have been to and find out that I haven’t won a dime.
I sat in the living room staring at those boxes of bills. What can I do? I am in real trouble any way I go. My head hurt with the effort to solve the dilemma.
Oh my, what if all the bills are counterfeit? What if just one of them is! How do I decide whether any of them are bogus? I can’t take them to the bank in case they are! Nor can I spend them until I can find out if they are good or not. I will have to go get a genuine thousand-dollar bill and compare each of the bills with it in great detail. So I Google the US Secret Service, and read about how to detect counterfeits. I am on the right track.
The next day, I go to my bank and draw out a thousand-dollar bill. Back home I begin to compare each of the found bills with my genuine one. They are all old and genuine as best I can determine. Their serial numbers are apparently random also, and there isn’t any red markings on them such as a bank would arrange to paint them if they were stolen in a bank bag. So counterfeiting isn’t my problem!
What has happened to me? I am thinking like a criminal! I have done nothing wrong—yet! But, I seem to be heading towards one or more acts that are felonies! The temptation of four million dollars in cash is overwhelming me, and shoving my ethical standards out the window.
Am I so easily tempted? Admittedly, I have a very strong urge to keep the money, somehow. Then, too, I have an aversion to thugs attacking me for the money, and the IRS then making a complete pauper out of me! What can I do? Of course, there is no way I can know truly what the origin of the money is, but I can definitely suspect it is dirty as hell. The boxes of cash are sitting there as silent testimony to my weakening ethics.
First, I arrange to take a week off from my job. That gives me time to think this out and do some simple things around the house. I buy a reasonably-sized safe and install it myself in the basement, virtually buried in concrete. Then I have an elaborate alarm system installed to help prevent anyone from trying to break in. With the cash deposited in the safe, and the alarm activated, I feel a bit safer, especially after I loaded my 9mm Glock and put it on safety, but I am really no further along in solving the main problem of what to do with four million dollars in cash.
My temporary solution is to sit on the money, and let some time slide by. I pick up my usual routines, my job, and my social affairs, and quietly research what can be done, if anything, to keep the cash. I don’t want to involve anyone else, because that would be a weak point. You cannot trust people when this amount of money is involved. I am living proof of that, now! (What am I doing?)
One key would be to try to convince a Swiss banker of the truth. Their information says, however, that if there is the slightest hint that the money is not of legal origin, they will refuse to open an account and will report it to their authorities. Who would believe that I found four million dollars by the roadside, and have no idea where it came from? “It fell off a truck!” Sure it did! I just want to play “finders, keepers.” Oh, and I have already violated a US law if I take more than ten thousand dollars out of the country without formally registering it and proving its source, among other devastating details.
Wait a minute! Suppose I go to a casino and buy some chips, play for a while, then cash out my stack for a check? Do they keep records of their transactions (yes)? Would I have to prove my identity (don’t know)? This method I can test out by trying it for a few thousand at the nearest casino. Apparently, this is a well-known way to launder, so I’d be foolish to try. Casino goons are just as bad as the gangsters I might have crossed!
To keep the money, it looks like I will have to find a shady banker or lawyer and bribe him to launder the money for me.(What am I saying?) Now, how do I do that? I just walk up to a bank officer or a lawyer and lay my cards on the table. Right! Next stop is the police station 99% of the time.
I am truly stuck for an answer!
To be continued.
Labels: Corruption, Honesty, Money Matters
Monday, February 09, 2009
Smaller-Government Ideas of Conservatism
One man, one government employee?
After reading “Outrage” by Dick Morris, one can surmise that fully a fifth of the national budget can be chalked up to fraud, graft, quasi-legal junketing, subsidies unnecessarily paid out to favorite big farmers, drug companies, the UN, Fannie Mae, for Illegal immigrants, and trade protection, among other extravaganzas.
If one increases the size of government, one could expect a similar increase in these practices, or even a further penetration and corruption of the political scene, not unlike the so-called stimulus pork project. A billion here, and a billion there, and you soon have a fully corrupted process.
Before letting government grow to its theoretical service-to-the-people limit, why not insist on cleaning up the fraud and corruption first, and the waste, mismanagement, and deadhead personnel that bloats payrolls and budgets throughout the Departments, Agencies, etc?
The concept that there just might eventually be one government employee for each civilian so as to cater to the citizen’s every wish is perhaps one theoretical limit to be avoided. Once over 50% of the population garners their wages from the US government, we are well on the way to restrictive socialism and who knows what excesses? This would put freedom and liberty for our citizens in great jeopardy.
Let us first concentrate on greater honesty and efficiency of government, legislators, lobbyists, and industry before allowing insatiable growth of government to satisfy every whim of the “Need and Right” groups.
Go to the LSU website to see just how many identifiable federal government organizations actually exist, have a staff, and budget. At last report it was 1,177 boards, committees, agencies, commissions, bureaus and the like. Many of these organizations have overlapping charters, separate rules and and a thirst for participation in the business of the day to justify their existence. We have become Russia, governed by 10,000 (or a lot more) clerks, not the leaders.
http://www.lib.lsu.edu/gov/index.html
It is all well and good to deep six the idea of smaller government, but we must have our government honest, minimally invasive of our freedoms and liberties, efficient, and cost-effective.
You don’t get there by opening the door to growth without reform.
Labels: Conservatism, Government, Government Handouts, Honesty, Stimulus
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Where Was Obama Born?
Phillip Berg is suing Obama to force Obama to show his proper birth certificate and other records that prove he was native born. That Obama is fighting this with all of his means is very telling indeed. The link is to the The American Thinker site where a You Tube video featuring Berg can be viewed.
The suit is awating the judge's decision on a dismissal motion from Obama's lawyers. It is not clear whether this suit can be decided before the election, but it is potentially destructive of Obama's candidacy: an outcome devoutly to be wished. We do not want an unconstitutional president voted into office.
Labels: Honesty, hypocrisy, Integrity, Obama, Origins
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Obama Resigns from Church
Here's a laugh! Obama and his wife have resigned from the Trinity church he was a member of for 20 years. Does anyone believe that this is an honest move?
I don't.
Labels: Honesty, hypocrisy, Obama
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Honesty and Integrity
The other day I was reminded of the oath I took as a Scout so may years ago.
It was and remains a serious commitment, never mind the pejorative, naive connotations some give the Scouts. Reading it again, everyone, and following it would help our society immensely. The hypocrisy and thievery we see in our Congress, our Administration, and even in our Supreme Court, as well as in our local politicians, leaves one to believe that we have set this simple set of oaths aside because of greed, and power-seeking. Perhaps we have not taught the oath to our children, whether in Scouts or not.
Boy Scout Oath, Law, Motto, and Slogan
Scout Oath (or Promise)
On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight.
Scout Law
TRUSTWORTHY
A Scout tells the truth. He keeps his promises. Honesty is part of his code of conduct. People can depend on him.
LOYAL
A Scout is true to his family, Scout leaders, friends, school, and nation.
HELPFUL
A Scout is concerned about other people. He does things willingly for others without pay or reward.
FRIENDLY
A Scout is a friend to all. He is a brother to other Scouts. He seeks to understand others. He respects those with ideas and customs other than his own.
COURTEOUS
A Scout is polite to everyone regardless of age or position. He knows good manners make it easier for people to get along together.
KIND
A Scout understands there is strength in being gentle. He treats others as he wants to be treated. He does not hurt or kill harmless things without reason.
OBEDIENT
A Scout follows the rules of his family, school, and troop. He obeys the laws of his community and country. If he thinks these rules and laws are unfair, he tries to have them changed in an orderly manner rather than disobey them.
CHEERFUL
A Scout looks for the bright side of things. He cheerfully does tasks that come his way. He tries to make others happy.
THRIFTY
A Scout works to pay his way and to help others. He saves for unforeseen needs. He protects and conserves natural resources. He carefully uses time and property.
BRAVE
A Scout can face danger even if he is afraid. He has the courage to stand for what he thinks is right even if others laugh at or threaten him.
CLEAN
A Scout keeps his body and mind fit and clean. He goes around with those who believe in living by these same ideals. He helps keep his home and community clean.
REVERENT
A Scout is reverent toward God. He is faithful in his religious duties. He respects the beliefs of others.
Scout Motto
Be Prepared
Scout Slogan
Do a Good Turn Daily
Read it again, with feeling!
